About Aurora

Don’t you just love the days leading up to a new Big Brother season? It seems like we just can’t get enough information on the houseguests and the upcoming twists. It’s almost time for the premiere and the live feeds to kick in, and I for one can’t wait!

Yesterday I wrote about Samantha, the houseguest who appeared in interview clips on the TV Guide Channel. Matt over at WeLoveBigBrother had an opportunity to interview Executive Producer Allison Grodner yesterday, and he asked her about the mysterious Samantha. As it turns out, she was an alternate who would have stepped in and joined the cast if something had gone wrong with one of the other houseguests before moving into the house. And although Grodner told us that we’ll have to wait and see on Thursday to find out who’s actually in the house, we can likely assume that the 14 fine folks on the official cast announcement are the ones we’ll be ogling all summer.

In other news, ET aired a house tour last night guided by the one and only Julie Chen. There wasn’t much new to see except for the gym, which looks the same as it did last season if memory serves me correctly. The short little doors to the room that’s meant to make people feel big are hilarious – I’m predicting we’ll see a few drunken headers into that door frame over the course of the season.

Here’s the video from the house tour:

From another interview with Allison Grodner, this time from Global TV’s Big Brother Rewind, we get a few more tidbits about America’s Player. This person has already been chosen and will remain America’s Player as long as they are in the house. There will be three weekly polls for viewers to vote on, one following each televised show. Two will be strategic in nature asking questions like “Who should America’s Player vote to evict?” and the third question will be for fun. The “fun” polls will appear after Sunday broadcasts.

One other thing that I found interesting is that, if America’s Player makes it to the jury, America will get to decide who they vote for in the end.

For every five things America’s Player does on behalf of the viewers, they will earn an extra $10,000. That’s not a bad return when you figure how many polls there will be, assuming this guy sticks around long enough to make it worth his while. The identity of the chosen houseguest will be revealed to viewers at the end of Thursday’s premiere episode – but the houseguests themselves will not know who it is until they are evicted or the show ends, whichever happens first.

There’s a great segment on Google video with Julie Chen, where she explains the twists in a bit more detail. She also mentions one of the enemy pairs could be a former employer/employee relationship, which echoes what Grodner said in her interviews as well. There are a few pairs that this could apply to.

There’s a Big Brother preview scheduled for Thursday morning on The Early Show, so set your Tivos now to catch that.

Finally, the last day for the early bird sale on the Big Brother 8 live feeds is tomorrow. Don’t forget to sign up now, and you’ll save $10 on the entire season’s feeds. For more information and to sign up for three days free and the rest of the season at a reduced rate, check out this link: Watch Big Brother 8 on SuperPass.

LauraBelle and I will be recapping the live feeds right here, each and every day all season long. I hope you’ll join us for what promises to be an exciting and fun season!